Investigating the translational and rotational motion of the swing using accelerometers for athlete skill assessment

In this paper, an accelerometer measurement system comprising three accelerometer nodes was used to identify the correlation between the skill level and the characteristics of the first serve swing in tennis. Three MEMS accelerometers were mounted on the knee, leg, and wrist of the tennis players. The kinematic model for the first serve was observed. Furthermore, this study revealed that side-forward motion of the hand along with the forward motion of the waist of an athlete can be used as indicator to assess the athlete's skill level. It is envisaged that this application can provide feedback to tennis players.